Culture

'Jeopardy!' fans are freaking out over the new format for its 'All Star Games'

Since the dawn of the the show, Jeopardy! has followed basically the same structure. When Alex Trebek appeared on the premiere of the Jeopardy! All Star Games on Wednesday evening and called the affair "a unique event in the 35 year history of Jeopardy! programming," he sure wasn't kidding.

The quiz show decided to shake things up with "a format we have never ever before attempted," according to Trebek, for their first-ever team tournament. Jeopardy! brought back all of our favorite, annoying, yet lovable competitors, and completely changed the format we've come know and love.

The typical format of a normal episode of Jeopardy! follows three individual players, and the winner gets to play again the next night. There are three rounds of trivia. The first is Single Jeopardy, where there are six categories each with five questions worth between $200 and $1,000. This is followed by Double Jeopardy which has the same amount of questions but they're worth between $400 and $2,000. Final Jeopardy ends the program and has one question where contestants are able to bet what they've earned in the game so far. The commercial breaks take place half way through Single Jeopardy, after Single Jeopardy, and after Double Jeopardy. Simple, right?

Well, forget all that because Trebek explains in this video how the All Star Games will be formatted.

If you're confusedby that video, don't worry, you aren't alone. Let's break it down a little further: There are six teams with three players on each team. Those three players will each play one round of Single, Double, and Final Jeopardy. Three teams will face off in the first "match", and the three others in the second. The winning teams of these two matches will automatically move on to the final match.

To make things more confusing, out of the four losing teams, the three with the top earning scores will play in a "wildcard match" to determine which team will be the third team to play in the final. Once you watch this video four or five times you'll finally get it.

Not only is this style of play being put into effect, but the episodes are being stretched out over multiple days as well. This is really the part that has fans up in arms. It's hard enough to follow a team when they have a different player in every round, but now you also have to follow your team over multiple days.

To be completely fair, Jeopardy! did tweet out a schedule which was slightly easier to follow, but not by much.

However, there are two main issues. First, most of their audience doesn't even know what Twitter is let alone how to use it. Second, the schedule they sent out makes absolutely no sense, we're getting half episodes some days but full episodes others.

Two-time Jeopardy! champion Jennifer Morrow was clearly perturbed by the new set up.

I’m having trouble following the rhythm of this episode - it’s like when you take a nap and then wake up at 4 p.m. and day is night and lunch is dinner and your whole sense of time is just trashed #JeopardyAllStars

Although the actual number of commercials was the same last night as any regular episode, the change is spacing made it feel as though there were 40 billion more. The Jeopardy! community wasted no time in taking to Twitter to express their frustrations.

This is the 4th commercial break in twenty minutes during jeopardy! And almost no questions. What is this crap!?! #JeopardyAllStars#thissucks

Even one of the all stars competing in the tournament, Alex Jacob, tweeted about the odd new format by comparing it to Survivor.

Listen, I know some people are worried about the new format tonight, but relax, they’re trying something new, some of your favorite players are back, I think it’s gonna be fun. But enough about #Survivor, at least #JeopardyAllStars is on too

Jeopardy! has been promoting this tournament like it's the Super Bowl of trivia, including a 43-minute live draft pick and a commercials with slow-mo walks and stadium lights.

While the idea of optimizing on the Jeopardy! fanbase's love for its champions isn't a bad one, the simple fact is that we love watching them play trivia, not talk about playing trivia.

Watching the team captains awkwardly roast Buzzy on national TV was a bit uncomfortable. The moment that takes the cake however, was when Austin tried to make fun of Ken's age and Alex Trebek basically had to tell him to calm down like a second grade teacher would.

We're sure there are some people out there who like this odd and hard-to-follow tournament style, but for the many people who don't like their routine to be messed with we beg for the old format back.

This word describes how Jeopardy! fans felt about the All Star Games: What is "betrayal", Alex?

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